1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens camera having an aperture size changing mechanism with which a photographer can freely and easily select a desired photographing aperture size among more than one predetermined aperture sizes, for instance, a standard size and a panoramic size.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many recent compact cameras having a zoom lens, one or more than one zoom lens barrel projects from the camera body when in use and is retracted and stowed (i.e. stored) in the camera body when not in use for the purpose of making the thickness of the camera small, which contributes to a small camera size.
This type of compact zoom camera having an aperture size changing mechanism is well known. With the aperture size changing mechanism, upper and lower predetermined portions of the photographing aperture are covered or uncovered by a pair of light intercepting plates so as to selectively change the effective size of the aperture. For instance, a standard size (24 mm.times.36 mm) is selected when a pair of light intercepting plates uncover the upper and lower port ions of the photographing aperture, and a panoramic size (13 mm.times.36 mm) is selected when a pair of light intercepting plates cover the upper and lower portions of the photographing aperture.
On the other hand, in this type of compact zoom camera having an aperture size changing mechanism, if the zoom lens barrel is a telescoping-type zoom lens barrel including more than one movable barrel, more than two movable barrels in particular, a gear mechanism is usually provided to drive the zoom lens barrel. A part of the gear mechanism may prevent the camera from being compact because the gear mechanism may interfere with the aperture size changing mechanism.